By now, we’ve all seen Microsoft’s new motion-control device for the Xbox 360, the Kinect, demonstrated by the likes of Jimmy Fallon… and if there’s one thing that these demonstrations have made clear, it’s that lag is still an issue, despite Microsoft’s faked E3 videos of the Kinect in action.

Think it’s something that might be cleared up by launch? Think again. UK retailer Play.com has posted the specs of the Kinect motion gaming accessory of the Xbox 360, and it looks like you can expect lag through the hardware limitations of the device alone.

Here’s what to note: the cameras are at two resolutions (320×240 and 640×480), which send a datastream with a 30FPS refresh rate. What that means is that we’re talking a 33ms minimum lag rate, which will jump even higher on games with higher refresh rates. Furthermore, the low resolution of the cameras will severely hamper the subtlety of the motions the Kinect can pick up.

Even worse? Only two players can be tracked by the Kinect at a time. Forget Wii-style Party games: co-op is the best you’ll get here.

We’ll reserve our opinions for when the games arrive, but the Kinect is really looking like a dud.

Reader Comments

This is comparable to the PS Move (they site a lag of 22ms, but when you factor in the cameras for the Move are also only running at 30fps, you’ll get the same result with the Move as the Kinect).

It’s a fact of life until we have some kind of ‘quantum entaglement’ processing in our consoles.

I’m curious though… I’m having a hard time finding out how much lag the Wiimote has… I would imagine it’s comprarable (although, it may have less lag having electronics built into the remote as opposed to camera/visual based systems)?